South Burnett CTC – the not-for-profit organisation that seems to be involved in so many parts of life in the South Burnett – is celebrating its 30th birthday.

Employees from all over the South Burnett, Mundubbera and Gympie packed the Highway Christian Church building in Kingaroy recently for their annual awards day, to mark the milestone and to get re-invigorated by listening to guest speaker Robyn Moore, well-known from the comedy radio program “How Green Is My Cactus”.

Awards were handed for five years of service, team awards and the special John Quatermass “Above and Beyond” award.

CTC Chief Executive Nina Temperton said this award – named after the late Patron of the organisation – was given to a staff member who had done something really remarkable.

This year’s recipient was Bonnie Trevanion, from CTC Youth Services in Mundubbera, who was stretched to the limit providing assistance during the January floods, and continued working to help others despite the fact her own house was inundated.

Bonnie, in turn, thanked all the “amazing people” in the rest of CTC who organised emergency transport runs from the South Burnett with supplies of baby formula, nappies, bottled water and “all the things people take for granted” to help the people of the North Burnett who were going through hell.

The Howard Leisemann STAR Award (which stands for – amongst other things – “Service, Teamwork, Attitude and Reliability”) was presented to Youth and Community Services Manager Kirsten Firman who has been with CTC for 13 years.

“This award is something that has to be earned over a considerable period of time,” Nina said.

South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann thanked CTC for all their work.

“You are helping to make the South Burnett a great place to be,” he said.

CTC traces its roots back to 1983 when Cherry Carroll – who now runs the Nimue Gallery in Kingaroy – and some friends were concerned about youth unemployment in the South Burnett.

With the help of a local businessman, John Quatermass, and the then-Mayor of Kingaroy (now Federal Nationals Leader) Warren Truss, they called a public meeting which led to the establishment of a Youth Unemployment Centre (YUC for short).

In 1989, the organisation was re-incorporated as South Burnett CTC Inc, and the rest is history.

These days CTC is involved in much more than just employment services … there’s foster care, disability services, community housing, crisis accommodation, childcare, respite, youth services, and much, much more.